After citing a couple of Cornwall Alliance's articles in discussion, an educator friend got this response from one of his former students: The problem with referencing the Cornwall Alliance to discredit statistics from the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies is that one (the Cornwall Alliance) is a political advocacy organization with no scientific relevance while the other (NASA) has the weight of objective fact and science behind it. To me there is virtually no legitimate way one can … [Read more...]
Canine Predator Control Devices: Should We Use them?
M-44s are spring-loaded devices that eject powdered sodium cyanide to kill the animal that pulls it. They were designed for the purpose of controlling canine predators such as coyotes. Unlike other control devices which require the animal to push (e.g. footholds), M-44s require the animal to bite and pull. When the animal bites and pulls, the sodium cyanide is ejected into the animal’s mouth where it can be absorbed into its system usually resulting in death. It’s the biting and pulling … [Read more...]
How are Climate Alarmists Like Icarus?
In Greek mythology, the god Icarus tries, with his father Daedalus, to escape from Crete by flying, using wings Daedalus made from wax and feathers. Proudly ignoring his father's warning not to fly too close to the sun lest the wax in the wings melt, Icarus did so and fell into the sea. Ever since then, Icarus has been synonymous with hubris---a foolish combination of pride and over-confidence. Michael Hart, Professor Emeritus and inaugural holder of the Simon Reisman chair in trade policy at … [Read more...]
Where the Buffalo Roamed—and Roam Again
As a child in a good elementary school in the small town of Owego, New York, in the early 1960s, I learned dozens of old folk songs. Among them was “Home on the Range,” which I, like many of my fellow students, loved to sing, feeling all romantic about life on the range—ridin’ your faithful horse, sleepin’ under the stars, shootin’ rattlesnakes, tamin’ wild horses, herdin’ cattle, and singin’ ’round the campfire. Of course, none of us had ever seen the range, other than in cowboy Westerns, but … [Read more...]
Who Are the Real Science Deniers?
So you think of science (or maybe I should say “science”?) as a solid, objective, trustworthy activity? Certainly a whole lot more credible than, say, philosophy, or theology, or fortune telling? Before I go on, let me assure you that I value science (without the scare quotes) a great deal. (Philosophy and theology, too—but not fortune telling!) But today a lot of what goes by the name of science deserves the scare quotes. And that should scare us, for a lot of reasons, because it means we’re … [Read more...]
Dogs—Mankind’s Best Friend?
Readers of my posts know that nature is dangerous. Radical environmentalists who constantly assert that humanity’s relationship with nature would be fine if we would just “work in harmony” is idealistic nonsense to those with jobs in the outdoors. Nature is safe when it is subjected to human service. Consider dogs, domesticated hundreds of years ago, they are now a big part of the lives of many people. But their submissive behavior is often misunderstood as “love.” It doesn’t take long for … [Read more...]
A Gorilla, A Boy, and the Decline of Human Dignity
On May 29, 2016, a 3 or 4 year-old boy (sources differ on his age) was visiting the Cincinnati Zoo with his mother. As boys sometimes do, he got into trouble. In this case big trouble, life threatening trouble. He fell into the enclosure that housed a 450 pound male silverback gorilla named Harambe (for the meaning of Harambe click here). It’s amazing the child survived the 10-foot fall into the enclosure. The water in the enclosure’s moat must have broken his fall. The danger was not over … [Read more...]
Morality-Based Veganism and Cultural Bigotry
Several years ago, I was outside Denver Colorado and noticed a billboard that said, "Why love one and eat the other?" An analogous sign can be found at Mercy for Animals. It shows a picture of a dog and a pig, with the question, why love one and eat the other? It is an ingenious marketing ploy. Exploit the American public’s idolatrous view of their pets in an attempt to exploit their view of fair play and adopt a meatless diet. [NBC New reports 7/12/2015 that Americans will spend more than 60 … [Read more...]
How Theology Can, and Should, Contribute to Scientific and Public Discourse about Anthropogenic Global Warming
A paper presented to the Round Table on Theology, Climate Change, and Politics, University of Western Ontario, May 29, 2012 Paleoanthropologist and philosopher Loren Eiseley (1907–1977), who though religious in the tradition of American Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau was certainly no orthodox Christian theist, on reflecting on the kind of soil in which science could flourish, wrote, “In one of those strange permutations of which history yields … [Read more...]
Why Do Taxpayer-Subsidized Businesses So Often Fail?
Subsidize renewable energy? What a great idea! If you like wasting money. SunEdison, which once described itself as the "largest global renewable energy development company" and was America's fastest-growing renewable energy company, filed for bankruptcy April 21. It seems that $1.5 billion combined subsidies and loan guarantees (including $650 million in grants and tax credits---i.e., outright handouts) wasn't enough to make up for the combination of hubris-driven over-expansion, … [Read more...]
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